DENVER — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s startling primary loss this week to a tea party-backed opponent illustrates how the GOP finds itself paralyzed by immigration reform. The policy most party leaders agree is best for the Republican Party’s future is risky for most House Republicans seeking re-election in the fall.

Almost all represent districts that are home to few minorities and they are in greater danger of losing to a primary challenger than to a Democrat in the general election. That leaves little incentive for the GOP-controlled House to even touch an immigration overhaul that would to grant citizenship to many of the 11 million people living in the country illegally.

Economics professor David Brat hammered Cantor, R-Va., for purportedly backing “amnesty” for people in the U.S. illegally during his primary challenge. He called his unexpected victory a wake-up call that “immigration reform is DOA.” After Cantor’s defeat, Republicans are left in a quandary before the 2016 election — what to do about an issue that’s often a winner in primaries but could cripple the party in a White House race before a more diverse electorate.

“Pain can be a good teaching tool sometimes,” said Mario H. Lopez, a Republican and executive director of the Hispanic Leadership Fund. “It may take another White House beat-down before some folks understand what kind of cliff they’re walking over.”

Many people involved in the immigration debate have similar predictions about what will happen next: The House takes no action on an immigration overhaul, President Barack Obama makes good on his promise to ease deportations by executive action later this summer, and that inflames the GOP even more, dooming any bill in 2015.

When the next presidential race gets underway, a broad field of the GOP’s presidential candidates will be competing for the support of primary voters who are far more opposed to an immigration overhaul than most Americans.

To some Republicans, that brings back memories of 2012, when Republican Mitt Romney adopted tough-on-illegal-immigration rhetoric to win the Republican presidential primaries. On Election Day, Hispanic and Asian voters overwhelmingly backed Obama.

The lone policy recommendation of GOP’s post-mortem on Romney’s loss was to pass immigration reform. While 14 Republican senators voted for an immigration overhaul that chamber passed last year, the measure was declared dead on arrival in the House. Republican lawmakers, many of whom were focused on the midterms, sought to avoid angering their base.

Immigration skeptics argue that’s the right way for the party to appeal to the working class.

“There aren’t enough rich people and there aren’t enough businesspeople to elect people to office,” said Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, which advocates for less immigration and believes those in favor of an overhaul are catering to financial elites who want to import cheaper workers into the U.S. “They have to have wage-earners.”

Immigrant rights groups complained that Cantor was part of the reason the overhaul died in the House, but as majority leader he opened the door to narrower measures that would grant citizenship to people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. That was enough to fuel his primary challenger.

It wasn’t immigration alone that doomed Cantor. The Virginia congressman sowed resentment by spending too much time focused on national issues as majority leader and not enough tending to his district. Others note that South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a chief architect of the Senate’s immigration overhaul, easily won his primary Tuesday night against a batch of tea party challengers.

And yet, the message appears clear to Republicans in Congress. On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner said a bill probably wouldn’t be possible this year.

“Perception is reality in politics, and the perception among Republican members of Congress is going to be that (Cantor) lost because he took a somewhat squishy stance on immigration,” said Republican pollster Glen Bolger, who expects similar caution among 2016 hopefuls.

“You’ll see the volume turned way down on that,” Bolger said. “You’re going to see a lot more caution and a lot less risk-taking.”

Among the 2016 prospects taking care with the issue is Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has received a tepid reaction from some Republican activists for a proposal that would let some people living in the U.S. illegally receive citizenship. He told reporters this week the immigration debate has become too charged.

“We’re trapped in this rhetoric and we have to get beyond that,” Paul said.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio reversed course on immigration in the wake of a backlash from GOP activists that followed his work as one of the eight co-authors of the Senate overhaul. He now argues the country shouldn’t consider creating a citizenship pathway until it secures its southern border.

“That was true before last night,” Rubio said the day after Cantor lost. “That’s especially true now.”

Matt Schlapp, a Republican consultant who worked for President George W. Bush, said the varying politics of immigration doom the prospects for any near-term action. After this year’s midterms, Democrats are sure to spend the next two years beating up on Republicans for the lack of movement, which in turn will lead the GOP to dig in deeper.

“If we have divided government, the politics have to work for both parties,” Schlapp said. “Until we get these things worked out, this just isn’t going to happen.”

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The only quandary is Democratic. Open borders will eventually destroy the Democratic Party when the poor and middle class realize their future opportunities are being destroyed by cheap labor and out of control social costs. Democrats need to put country before party before both are lost. That is why I hate political parties. They are contrary to good government and liberty.

It is the beginning of the end for the Republican party. The democrats want amnesty so they can create millions of democrat voters and millions of dependents on government handouts.

Any Republican who supports amnesty will at some point have to deal with his constituency who opposes it.

And make no mistake. "Immigration reform" is nothing but amnesty. No matter what the democrats and obama say, that is the goal. They have lied to us enough that we should know they can't be trusted, but it appears there are a lot of gullible people out there.

American Heritage Dictionary definition of fascism: "...a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Because he is "hot" (physically attractive)? Or did God put him in? Or all three? We all know God has joined the tea party. Even though I advised him not to.

I take a little courage in this because Cantor had all the money. Usually the money wins. Does some of the electorate realize at this point that our corporatized political auctions are killing us? Will we all rise up as one some day and demand the end to this toxic bribery system?

Or did an Evangelical have enough Christian Rightists in his corner to carry the day at the polls? He sure tossed them a lot of loaves and fishes at his acceptance speech.

Cantor is a Jew in Virginia. You know, the Protestants were once very anti-Semitic. But anti-Semites all went out with the hula hoop. Evangelicals love Jews today. So Cantor being a Jew is not a factor (unless you have an occasional Neo-Nazi hanging around the tea party).

Where's the billions for a wall that won't stop people going to come from?? They already tried the wall solution. It was a high tech failure. Do you only comment on the news and not read it? You underestimate the will of people desperate to get away from cartel killers and a horrible life.

They're for intentional government gridlock if they can't get their way, addressing all healthcare issues using the same failed "solutions", no solutions for immigration except to call for things that they won't provide they money for (like securing borders), lowering education standards and coming up with religious-based ones for "alternatives", unlimited campaign finance, less environmental regulation (even after we've seen what happens), keep voting against veterans benefits until they make they news for it and change their tune, and can't appeal to minorities - yet minorities are soon to not be the "minority" any more. And of course there should be as little checks as possible to keep mental cases from owning a gun. We wouldn't want all the non-mental cases to inconvenienced..... unless it's voting rights instead of gun right we're talking about - then the inconvenience on that Constitutionally-guaranteed right is yet somehow justifiable with no significant fraud data backing it.

The only things they are "for" is just a bunch of blather. For "freedom"?? Sure - if "freedom" means big-government getting into people's personal lives and trying to tell them how they must live according to Christian doctrine. Freedom to marry who you want??? NO WAY! Freedom to enjoy that evil marijuana in the privacy of your own *personal* and *private* domain?? Ohhh NO... getting hammered drunk - sure. Saddling us with cancer and heart health bills because of cigarettes - ok. Freedom to grow something (hemp) we can only legally import (from 2 miles across the Canadian border)? Nope - have to buy it from other countries. Just a bunch of hypocrites with no solutions, parroting the same stupid stuff over-and-over.

just maybe, they should be listening to their constituents and not the pollsters or the head of their party. They are supposed to be working for the people in the district they were elected to represent. Politicians spend too much time figuring out how to get reelected and not focusing on the job at hand!

The article above doesn't seem to even hint about what the voters want; it talks about how addressing the matter will affect the election outcome!

In talking about Republicans you seriously said "anti-Constitution" and " intentional government gridlock "??? Anti-Constitution is Obama's baby. He's done everything he possibly can to date to ignore that sacred document. Last I checked, he was a Democrat!

Intentional Government Gridlock? That's also what Obama did during the ACA fight when he couldn't get his way. He refused - yes REFUSED to talk with anyone from the Republican party to work toward a compromise causing that grid-lock. Again - he's a democrat.

I don't even need to address the rest of the things you listed. They are laughable. I hope you don't really believe what you write.

Really? You haven't noticed the red state laws being over-turned for violating the Constitution? Guess you have your head in the sand. Our KS legislature reviewed strip club laws, made a law saying the Feds guns laws don't trump the state's, tried to legalized discrimination, an anti-Sharia law, and made a anti-gay marriage law that has no chance of standing up to the US Constitution. Even our own state supreme court just found our Congress violating the state Constitution laws.

The House GOP was playing politics and voted 50 times to try and change something the KNEW they didn't have the votes to change. They wasted millions just in the voting process. And they did it for nothing but to pander to their base. Did they accomplish anything? Did that broaden their voting base? No. It only tanked their approval rating even further. Did they have an idea for a replacement solution? No. They demanded the complete repeal of ACA, then started trying to back off a week later and blame the president. ACA is law. If they can't submit bills to make it better, that's their fault for trying nothing but complete repeal with no other plans except to continue the same failed methods. No one was fooled by their actions.

I wonder if it had something to do with Republicans being fed up with powerful Republicans in government standing in the way of everything but Obamacare. The one law Conservatives hate the most got through. So what has the Conservatives' money been spent on? Shutting down the government wasted millions of dollars and they gained nothing. Voting 52 times to overturn Obamacare knowing they could not get it overturned. Voting for two wars but not funding them thus throwing out taxpayers in debt for years to come. Doing nothing to stop the flow of illegals into this country when there was not enough jobs for USA citizens. And last but not least representing big business and not the people who voted for them and pay their salaries. Cantor is the first. Now lets sweep a few more non-representatives out. We pay the bills and will have something to say about where our money goes.

If so, have you then bothered to read the posts? That is what the guy was talking about. Anybody with an ounce of sense knows that something needs to be done about immigration. Anybody with any sense also knows that it is impossible - practically and economically - to round up every illegal alien in this country and deport them. So, what do we do? If you watch DC and read these posts you point fingers at each other over stuff that really doesn't matter and then bury our heads anytime we have to deal with something real. Son, why did we get the ACA? Because the insurance companies in tis country had been running rampant against the citizenry for decades. the Republican solution? Lower taxes. Yeah, that will work real well FOR THE INSURANCE EXECS! Granting amnesty is NOT a good idea and is NOT going to be a winner politically, but you can't round everybody up. So, what are we going to do? Smejhawk is right that we need leaders, but let me let you in on a secret - that leader is not Obama, Cruz, Paul or Jenkins or Moran or Roberts or any of the other clowns from Kansas and probably any from any of the other states either! If they were really leaders these problems would have been taken care of years ago. I never liked Reagan, but he go some stuff done that needed to be done. As much as I hated the Kennedys, when people like Dole and drunk teddy were in charge, things got done in Congress. The problems began when every single thing being discussed became a do or die "principle" issue. Thanks Newt, we really appreciate your legacy! Now, some will be very upset that I am supporting that no-good rino Bob Dole. Well, you know what? Grow up, when you parents were voting instead of you they elected people who could actually think instead of just reciting talking points handed down from their bidders! Yes, we had spending issues, but that was because there was no check on the Dems for 1/2 a century. We also got more problems when we gutted the tax rates to let things "trickle down"! that didn't work, doesn't work, and will never work. But hey, your Dads worked at Goodyear and other places around town, and now you call them union thugs - even though that helped pay for you to go to college and actually make a life for yourself. Of course many of you just pulled yourself up by the boot straps and made it all on your own, with no help from anybody. No teacher encouraged you to follow your talents. No boss took a chance on you and gave you the first job. NO, each and everyone went out and started your own business and became a "job creator" and by golly you deserve everything that you have. Never mind that when most of you got out of high school, tuition to the colleges and tech schools were affordable enough that you could actually graduate and within a few years by a house. Now, let them pay their own way, I need my taxes cut. Oh and another thing, I want my house roofed, and it needs to be fast and cheap - but you better only hire those with good papers, wink wink! We, the voters, are the enablers of this messed up system and until we educate our selves, instead of falling for all the talking points, it won't get any better. Sorry for the long rant, but ............